Stephen King’s latest novel, Doctor Sleep, is a worthy sequel to The Shining

Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep tells the story of Danny, whose dad was played by Jack Nicholson in The Shining (Picture: http://www.iandodds.co.uk)

Stephen King is the global monarch of fictional horror. He has written more than 50 books, selling more than 350 million copies worldwide.

His early work, especially, inspires fanatical devotion – whether writing about children with uncanny powers (Carrie) or vampires colonising dead-end towns (Salem’s Lot), he focuses unerringly on the mundane’s slow descent into terror.

And his shadowy landscapes are peopled with well-drawn individuals: ‘You can’t be afraid for characters if they’re just cardboard cut-outs. Love creates horror,’ he says.

Now one of 2013’s most anticipated releases, the sequel to King’s renowned third novel, The Shining (1977), comes out after a 36-year wait.

Who could forget little Danny Torrance, wintering in a haunted Colorado hotel with only his mum, his alcoholic dad and his powerful ‘shine’, or telepathy, for company?

Many who weren’t first terrified by the novel kept the lights on all night after watching Kubrick’s menacing, claustrophobic film of the same name. So is life easier for Danny now the shadows of the Overlook Hotel are far behind him?

Alas, no. Grown-up Dan Torrance is an alcoholic like his lost dad, drinking to blur the shining’s unbearable visions.

Drifter, bar-crawler, veteran of a thousand temporary jobs, he has one unique talent: helping people to die.

Hitting rock bottom after failing to protect a vulnerable toddler, ‘Doctor Sleep’ washes up in a small New Hampshire town, joins AA and begins working for the local hospice, using his extra sense to help ease the dying painlessly over the border.

Here he finds peace – until he encounters 12-year-old Abra Stone, the girl with the brightest ‘shine’ of all.

Also in New England are The True Knot, who at first seem unthreatening: a troop of polyester-clad retirees slowly travelling the US in their Winnebagos.

But they’re actually immortal predators, feeding on the ‘steam’ released by torturing, then killing children who are like Danny once was: children who shine. Now they’re running low on juice. And they, too, have noticed Abra Stone…

Returning to such landmark former territory is a bold decision but King doesn’t disappoint.

Dan’s trials sometimes make for painful reading but they feel truthful, respectful of the character we knew.

Not as scary as The Shining, it’s still scary enough – we get glimpses of the Overlook’s decaying former denizens, and the True Knot’s leader, a beautiful woman called Rose the Hat who sometimes boasts a single, elongated upper tooth, is the genuine stuff of nightmares.

But Doctor Sleep is as much about fathers and sons as about monsters.

Dan’s attempts to free himself from Jack’s oppressive legacy of binge, violence and regret are subtle and poignant, and his supportive AA chapter gives King scope for characteristic, addictive miniatures of small-town US life.

There’s the odd hokey moment, and powerful Abra’s girlish dependence on Dan can be slightly annoying. Nevertheless, this is a one-sitting, lights-on read.

Plenty of new horror writers snap at King’s heels today, among them his son, Joe Hill, The Shining’s dedicatee, whose NOS4R2 has become a bestseller.

But King still remains the daddy of them all.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King Hodder & Stoughton

Three more Kings to keep you up at night

FirestarterThis 1980 novel also features a child with phenomenal powers: brave, dangerous, pyrokinetic Charlie. Sinister government agency The Shop created Charlie’s tinderbox talent by exposing her parents to a powerful drug.
After her mother’s murder, Charlie and her dad take to the road, but The Shop is desperate to recapture its prize specimens…

The StandFor a titanic struggle between the forces of good and evil, King’s post-viral apocalypse, The Stand (1978/1990), still takes some beating. In an America decimated by a weaponised flu virus, who will triumph – gentle Mother Abagail’s adherents, or the followers of the Black Man, Randall Flagg?

JoylandEarlier this year, King gave us the brief but gripping Joyland, a thriller about theme parks in and out of season, a dying child and a ghost.